The Importance of Woodworking in Colonial America You are called upon to build a house. It's a big house and you'll need all your tools, but you'll be paid fairly. You are the colonial carpenter. The colonial carpenter was very important in the colonies. Woodworking provided jobs, homes, and skilled tradesmen ready to repair a broken structure. Anything made of wood was most likely built by a carpenter. The carpenter used various tools to make different cuts and shapes in the wood. Carpenters used many different types of wood for different furniture. Woodworking in colonial America provided homes and jobs for settlers. “Carpenter” is a very broad term for a large number of jobs. Everything that is made of wood was made by some sort of carpenter. The carpenter was responsible for building houses. He made planks out of the logs. He used the boards to make tiles and boards, which were given to the carpenter so he could finish the roof. The carpenter was responsible for finishing the house. He made doors, windows and roofs with tiles. There was the cabinetmaker, responsible for making a wide variety of furniture. This included cabinets, chests of drawers, candlesticks, chairs and tables. The carpenter was the chief craftsman, but he had many slaves and other people working for him. This shows that the carpenter had a wide range of tasks to perform. Woodworking provided employment for many settlers. The carpenter could not perform all these tasks with his hands alone, he needed tools. The carpenter had many tools to help him get the job done. Among them, he used saws to cut. Saws were not new tools. They had been in use for over 5,000 years when colonial carpenters used them. He used different types of paper......and the carpenter used different tools and varieties of wood to create different products. The carpenter was paid a fair amount of money for his work. Even though the importance of the carpenter has reduced due to factories, the carpenter still has importance in today's society. If you need a nice piece of furniture or wood flooring, you can confidently ask a carpenter.Works CitedColonial Williamsburg. History, April 30, 2012. Web. October 8, 2013. .Kalman, Bobbie. Tools and gadgets of historical communities. Ill. Antonietta Cook DeBiasi. Np: Crabtree, 1992. Print. Lukes, Bonnie L. Colonial America. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2000. Print.Tunis, Edwin. Colonial life. London, UK: The John Hopkins University Press, 1951. Print.Williamsburg Interpreter. Personal interview. October 26. 2013.